McCool suffers neck injury in Spitfires 4-0 win over Spirit

Parker’s top three Spits: 1. G Mikey DiPietro (made 22 saves to set new club marks for shutouts in a season and for a career) 2. LW Cristiano DiGiacinto (extended point streak to four games with game-winning goal) and 3. RW Gabriel Vilardi (one assist, a constant threat on offence and +3).

Turning point: Spitfires score twice in the first 11 minutes and settled into cruise control.

Thumbs up: It took 24 games, but rookie C Tyler Angle scores his first OHL goal on a feed from Maddux Rychel, who notched his first OHL point on the play.

Thumbs down: LW Hayden McCool taken down and slides into the end boards in the third period and had to be stretchered off the ice.

Up next: The Spitfires visit the Kitchener Rangers on Friday. Game time at the Memorial Auditorium is 7:30 p.m.

Points seem almost insignificant when the health of a teammate comes into question.

While the Windsor Spitfires scored a 4-0 win over the Saginaw Spirit on Thursday before 4,402 fans at the WFCU Centre, most players were thinking about teammate Hayden McCool.

The fourth-year forward was taken off the ice on a stretcher less than two minutes into the third period after sliding head-first into the end boards behind the Saginaw net.

“You never like to see a guy go down, especially when he doesn’t get up and has to be stretchered off,” Spitfires goaltender Mikey DiPietro said.

At the time, the Spitfires were comfortably in control leading 3-0 when McCool was taken out at the ankles by Saginaw’s Brock Hill. Windsor teammate Graham Knott jumped over McCool to avoid a collision, but the six-foot-three, 202-pound McCool clipped the Saginaw net with his legs and then spun head-first into the boards.

He did not move after the play and teammates were quick to call to the bench for help. A stretcher quickly followed and McCool was placed on a board and taken to hospital.

“Hearts out to him and we’re getting word he’s OK, but it’s always scary when you see that happen to a buddy of yours and a fellow teammate,” DiPietro said.

Spitfires general manager Warren Rychel, who immediately left his box to head to the Zamboni entrance, said McCool suffered a neck injury, but there was no numbness in his hands or legs and he was taken to hospital as a precaution.

The club announced late that x-rays on his neck were negative, but there is no timetable for his return to the lineup.

Thursday’s shutout was revenge against Saginaw, who beat Windsor on a late goal last Saturday.

Less than 11 minutes into the game, the Spitfires had a 2-0 lead as Cristiano DiGiacinto tipped home the opening goal and rookie Tyler Angle took a feed from Maddux Rychel to score his first OHL goal.

Angle, who beat starting goalie Evan Cormier to the glove side, got his first goal in his 24

th

game while Rychel, playing in his third game with the club, picked up his first OHL assist.

“First one’s going to be a good one in the books,” said Angle, a sixth-round pick by Windsor in the 2016 OHL Draft.

Veteran Adam Laishram added a goal late in the second period and defenceman Sean Day closed the scoring in the third period.

DiPietro, who missed the last two games to attend the CHL/NHL Top Prospects game in Quebec City, made 22 saves for his league-leading sixth shutout of the season.

The six shutouts establish a new club record for a single season, which he had shared with Andrew Engelage and Anthony Guadagnolo.

The 17-year-old DiPietro, an Amherstburg native who grew up watching the Spitfires, now has eight career shutouts in parts of two seasons, another club record. He shared the old mark with Engelage.

“Weird, but it’s also humbling,” DiPietro said of the new records. “There’s a lot of great goaltenders that came through this organization in 40-plus years, so it’s a lot of years.

“To be the guy leading in that category is a great honour,” he added.

Maddux Rychel, centre, slips the puck to Windsor teammate Tyler Angle, right, who went on to score his first OHL goal seconds later. Rychel also recorded his first OHL point on the assist.Nick Brancaccio /
Windsor Star

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